The South-West, by a Yankee

This book grew out of a private correspondence, which the author, at the solicitation of his friends, has been led to throw into the present form, modifying in a great measure the epistolary vein, and excluding, so far as possible, such portions of the original papers as were of too personal a nature to be intruded upon the majesty of the public - while he has embodied, so far as was compatible with the new arrangement, everything likely to interest the general reader. The author has not written exclusively as a traveller or journalist. His aim has been to present the result of his experience and observations during a residence of several years in the South-West. This extensive and important section of the United States is but little known. Perhaps there is no region between the Mississippi river and the Atlantic shores, of which so little accurate information is before the public; a flying tourist only, having occasionally added a note to his diary, as he skirted its forest-lined borders.

Joseph Holt Ingraham (1809-1860) was an American author. Ingraham was born in Portland, Maine. He spent several years at sea, then worked as a teacher of languages in Mississippi. Under the pen-name F. Clinton Barrington he wrote stories for popular publications like Gleason's Pictorial Drawing-Room Companion. Ingraham wrote a series of three epistolary novels on biblical themes: The Pillar of Fire, The Throne of David and The Prince of the House of David. The first of these was supposed to illustrate the beginning of Hebraic power, the second its culmination and the last its decadence.